by David Virtue on substack
For some time now I have been asking myself why Islam so powerfully captures the human mind.
Every movement has its true believers. MAGA has them too. They show absolute certainty, unswerving loyalty, little reflection, and the conviction that they are right and everyone else is wrong. But the comparison only goes so far. Islam is a more unified field of thought, and its zealots are prepared to do something MAGA’s are not: kill for it.
Allahu Akbar is said in every Muslim’s daily prayers. In the mouth of the jihadist, it becomes something else entirely: a battle cry. To die with those two words on your lips while killing infidels is, in that theology, the summit of spiritual achievement. It is martyrdom.
Christianity and Islam are both missionary faiths, but they are profoundly different. Christendom has its own bloody ledger, of course: the Crusades and the European wars of religion. But when Christians killed for the faith, they betrayed their Founder, who told Peter to put away his sword. When the jihadist kills, he believes he is following his.
Judaism, by contrast, does not seek converts and actively discourages all but the most deeply convinced. Conversions do happen; Ivanka Trump converted when she married Jared Kushner. But Jews do not go out of their way to win others. Jews and Christians have lived peaceably side by side in America for more than three centuries, and despite the rise in antisemitism there is little sign of that changing. Evangelicals remain Israel’s largest bloc of American supporters, though younger evangelicals are noticeably cooler toward Israel than their parents.
Jews and Christians fought alongside each other in two world wars. Deep friendships have grown up over the years, as this writer can personally attest. Both are loyal to America and its ideals. The same is true in Britain. Since Cromwell readmitted the Jews in the 1650s, British Jewry has lived peacefully alongside Christianity, never challenging the nation’s laws or constitution and contributing to its life out of all proportion to its numbers.